I've been here long enough to know that I, and others, would be better served talking in "tongues" that trying to talk sense to some of these zealots.
Perhaps I will refrain from the Easter Bunny threads, come April. ;)
Posted on 12/26/2005 8:11:14 AM PST by Conservatrix
To the Editor:
"Last week I substituted at a local elementary school in Lebanon County. The lesson plan required me to read the 1882 poem “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore to two classes of students. While I can appreciate the poem for its literary value, the subject matter is offensive to me, and the reading of this poem to the children imposed values upon me which are against my deeply held religious beliefs. I could not in good conscience present the notion of Santa Claus as a truth to the children, and stated so.
No public school teacher should be required to teach a belief, or custom, or religion that he or she believes to be false, or be required to pass those purported falsehoods onto impressionable children, without the right to state a disclaimer. Furthermore, freedom of speech and religion, no matter how unpopular the speech or against cultural norms the religion, are protected rights under the Constitution of the United States. A secular public school should not be propagating any kind of religion. The belief in Santa Claus as a divine, magical, omniscient, powerful, giving, loving father-figure, to which children are taught to make supplications and requests, is a religion indeed-- a distorted substitute for the Judeo-Christian God; a false form of Christianity; a zealously-protected American idol.
In presenting the poem, I gave the children quick historical background about the Santa Claus myth-- its evolution from the historic Nickolaus, Bishop of Myrna in Asia Minor, who died in 343 A.D., to its amalgamation with ancient Western pagan traditions of German, Scandinavian and Dutch origins, to the current manifestation in the secular Christmas culture of today. (Dutch children, for example, would put their wooden shoes out at night for “Sante Klaus” to fill with candies.)
The current Santa Claus figure was popularized in the late 19th Century by artist Thomas Nast of Harper’s Weekly Magazine, who depicted “Saint Nick,” not as an elf, but a rotund, pipe-smoking man in a red and white suit. This is the deity to which countless public school children today are taught to make supplications, and about whom they sing their many songs at annual public school Christmas programs.
If people are upset about the revelation to children that Santa Claus is a myth-- which all children who are taught this lie find or figure out eventually-- perhaps it is because Santa is that zealously-guarded idol of their own modern religion. Therefore, as a religion, let Santa be kept out of the public school classroom (no more “Dear Santa” letters to line those school hallways)--or perhaps, in the interest of “diversity,” make his mythical, oversized personage share equal representation in literature, and song, and Christmas programs, with the other Person of the season: the Lord Jesus Christ, God made flesh, God with us."
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! .... You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!" (Matthew 23:23-24)
GNAT: reading "The Night Before Christmas" as requested by the teacher.
CAMEL: Taking it upon herself to decide that she should force HER personal belief that Santa is incompatible with Christianity on the classroom -- creating this huge controversy due to her holier-than-thou attitude.
ww
I've been here long enough to know that I, and others, would be better served talking in "tongues" that trying to talk sense to some of these zealots.
Perhaps I will refrain from the Easter Bunny threads, come April. ;)
If you cashed it, then you took money to do something you don't believe in. While it's not technically prostitution it sure as heck would make you some kind of harlot.
Now, if you really have the courage of your convictions return that filthy lucre to those heathens at the school district.
L
*Bingo*... As usual, Howlin, you make me howl!
Ping me if you get an answer, I think she's taking a serpent handling break.
What a stick-in-the-nethers, crotchety, intolerable twit.
"Piss off."
Go take a flying leapl at a rolling donut!
I made damn sure that the gullible house apes in my kindergarden class 60 years ago would quit beliving the lie their parents tried to perpitrate on them.
. How many other 'myths' in the guise of teaching literature have we endured in school? We read the Iliad etc. and we know the gods within are not real. Would this teacher also have a cow over the teaching of these? Further, a child receives gifts at Christmas - from Santa Claus. These free gifts are direcltly related to the FREE gift of redemption which derives from Christ's birth on Christmas. But how many 6 year olds are ready to grasp or can understand this? How does a 6 year old grasp the Resurrection or the Holy Trinity? What do they know of life and death? Santa Claus is our culture's transition point for young minds to appreciate gifts and giving. In my faith, children are ready to make the decision to be baptised at the age of 13. Similarly, in the Jewish faith, young men are Bar Mitzvahed at 13. NOT before. Is there are reason that they wait so long for this? I believe so. But until then, Santa is just fine.
*Well said.
L
If your friend had any true convictions, she would have stood by her words and kept her beliefs to herself.
!!!!!
So, I as a Catholic, can not let my children read fairy tales? No more Little Red Riding Hood? No more Three Little Pigs?
Should I throw away all my Grimms Fairy tales books? How about Hans Christian Anderson?
When I read these as a child, I absolutely loved fairy tales. Good always prevailed. I believed that was they way the world was in the "olden days."
Are you saying that I should not let my children and, in a few years, grandchildren read these books?
You are a sad woman/man. Very sad.
They must have had wedgies back then because your undies are still in a bunch.
I'm sure a professionally trained psychiatrist would say folks like you have some deep seated issues. Me, I just say folks like you are giant walking bungholes who should be avoided.
L
Conservtrix - you are a d$ck. She had no business foisting her beliefs onto other parents' children. She is actually as guilty, if not more, as what she professes to stand for. Give up the defense of this witch that intentionally tried to ruin the kids' belief in Santa. There was no other motivation.
"It also goes back to what one was saying above, if this teacher was an athiest, should they have been allowed to present that God does not exist? We all know the answer to that. "
Your parallel isn't. If Santa were a religion, then the teacher would have been prohibited from making any comments on its validity...pro or con.
That's pretty clear in our laws. However, Santa Claus is not a deity, any more than Superman is. Both are purely fictional characters. Nobody knows the truth about deities, so that topic is rightly off limits. Otherwise, the Hindu teacher could say that the Judeo-Christian deity is a false one or vice versa. I don't think we want that.
Santa Claus, however, is a fictional character. That is a fact. That is the truth. There is no Santa Claus in real life. Santa is a myth. Teaching that Santa is a myth is teaching simple truth. Explaining the origins of the Santa Claus character is teaching simple truth.
That's what school is for. Teaching. Parents may teach bizarre ideas to their children. That is their right. And...they often do. Teachers teach what is factual, or what the curriculum says is factual, at least. That is their job. Teaching religion is not their job.
This woman is too stupid to be teaching any children.
Give it up with your nonsense argument. You sound as goofy as the teacher.
This are kids being told a classic story, that's all. No religion involved here. Move on, nothing here to see.
Thank god they hadn't invented the mentally deranged freeks called psychiatrists back then.
Santa lives at the North Pole, and Superman has his Fortress of Solitude there... coincidence? I think not!
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